"He Must Increase; I Must Decrease"

Those were the words of John the Baptist when his disciples came to him concerned that Jesus had started to attract larger crowds than John.  It's such an awesome thing to say, "He must increase; I must decrease" (Jn.3:30) - so incredibly noble.  It sounds so spiritually "romantic" ... but then you yourself are called to live it, and all of the air goes out of the tires.  

Each of us is going to experience times, probably many times, in our efforts to serve God when all of our plans come to nought.  As best we can tell, our hearts are in the right place; and we are using our abilities as we believe the Lord wants, but our efforts do not appear to meet with success.  But when we look around at our brothers and sisters we see just the opposite - their efforts to tell others about the Lord Jesus and to be of help to others are flourishing.  We have to beware of the Enemy at moments like that; he would love nothing more than to encourage a spiritual jealousy in our hearts.

St. Paul encouraged the us to keep our heads on straight, guarding our thoughts with "the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph.6:17).  And what does the word tells us?

• “My son, when you come to serve the LORD, prepare yourself for trials. Be sincere of heart and steadfast, undisturbed in time of adversity.  Cling to him, forsake him not; thus will your future be great. Accept whatever befalls you, in crushing misfortune be patient; For in fire gold is tested, and worthy men in the crucible of humiliation. Trust God and he will help you; make straight your ways and hope in him.” (Sir.2:1-6) 

• Not to say that any of us find ourselves in this position, but when other Christian preachers were trying to outshine Paul in proclaiming Christ, his attitude was, "What does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice" (Phil.1:18)

• "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mt.20:28)

• "So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty." (Lk.17:10)

It's not our kingdom that we are building.  It is not our names that we wish to magnify.  The trials we face, the setbacks are not truly defeats; they create opportunities for us to persevere in loving the Lord, in expending ourselves for love of Him.  These are the moments when He grows our souls, transforms them to be more like His - poured out on the Cross for love of the Father ... and us.  Trials in our efforts to serve purify us.  They provide opportunity to overcome, to burn away, any residual desire we have to build our kingdoms, to make a name for ourselves, with the Fire of Love - the Holy Spirit who made saints of John the Baptist and Paul.

Come Holy Spirit, 

Love of the Father for the Son,

Love of the Son for the Father,

Soul of the Mystical Body,

Font of Life,

Fire of Love,

Sweet Anointing from Above.

Baptized with the Spirit and Fire

Praying the Rosary and meditating on Jesus' Baptism by John took a different turn this morning. My attention became focused on John's reaction to Jesus. "I need to be baptized by you" (Mt.3:14). Now, of course John recognized Jesus' superior holiness, but there is something else we ought to recognize: Part of John's preaching was how the Messiah would offer a baptism superior to his.   John had told the crowds, "I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Mt.3:11).

The baptism offered by Jesus, the Sacrament of Baptism, changes us in the deepest parts of our humanity.  We are given sanctifying grace, meaning that are damaged souls are repaired and renewed as the Holy Spirit rushes in and takes up residence in them.  We still retain however inclinations toward old patterns of behavior that need to be undone - "burned away" you could say, and that is an ongoing process, one that God wants us to take part in.  It can hurt.  On some rare occasions God may seem like an old-fashioned doctor using a piece of white-hot iron to cauterize a wound and prevent further infection!  It takes faith to recognize God as a Father, Who always has our eternal best-interests at heart.

“My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord

or lose heart when reproved by him;

for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines;

he scourges every son he acknowledges.”

Endure your trials as “discipline”; God treats you as sons. For what “son” is there whom his father does not discipline?  If you are without discipline, in which all have shared, you are not sons but bastards.  Besides this, we have had our earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not [then] submit all the more to the Father of spirits and live? They disciplined us for a short time as seemed right to them, but he does so for our benefit, in order that we may share his holiness. At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.

So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed. (Heb.12:5-12)

I rather like the way C.S. Lewis paraphrased this in Mere Christianity.  I do not have my copy in front of me but if memory serves, he wrote,  "God loves us now, just as we are; but He loves us too much to allow us to remain the way we are!"

More on Jesus' Baptism

I've written before about Jesus' death being foreshadowed in His baptism, but it wasn't until praying the Rosary a few nights ago that I also saw His resurrection there. The death is in the going down into the water, but the resurrection in the coming up into the presence of the Spirit and the voice of the Father. St. Paul even did the leg work for us, linking the resurrection to the Spirit and God [the Father's] declaration. Paul wrote that Jesus was "designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead" (Romans 1:4). I can't believe how dense I am not to have recognized this before, especially when I've taught on the symbolism of death and resurrection in regards to our baptisms!

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).

Chuck It

I don't know, we've been talking about Jesus baptism...water...it made sense to me.

Jesus' Baptism

Alright, I'm recycling material here; but as I said, I love thinking about the mysteries surrounding Jesus' baptism. Here's a link to an excerpt from Chapter 3 of The God Who is Love: Explaining Christianity From Its Center; just jump ahead to pages three and four.

Jesus' Prayer

My Protestant brothers and sisters refer to the Our Father as The Lord's Prayer, Jesus' prayer. Reflecting upon Jesus' Baptism, it strikes me as a wonderful insight.

How natural for those words to have been on Jesus' lips as went down into the water:

Our Father, Who art in heaven, holy be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.

The prayer of the Messiah, as he takes up His office before the world. And then the second half of the prayer - offered by One Who was perfectly sinless, but the representative of a sinful race:

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

The Love of Jesus for us - Our Father...give us our daily bread...forgive us. Thank You God! What else can we feel at this moment besides gratitude and awe?

Lookin' Up

I love this Feast Day, the celebration of Jesus' Baptism (brace yourself, I feel multiple posts coming on). Listen to how Mark tells it:

Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. Immediately on coming up out of the water he saw the sky rent in two and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. Then a voice came from the heavens, "You are my beloved Son. On you my favor rests." (Mark 1:9-11)

Why is it that it feels so natural to look up when we pray? Even Jesus did it on occasion (John 11:41), and He was in a position to know that Heaven isn't physically above "the heavens"! So what's the deal? Highly visual moments like Jesus' baptism and ascension remind us that Heaven is a "higher level" of being, but again; why the physicality of looking toward the sky?

My own theory? I'll warn you; it's not very complex...I think it has to do with little children looking and reaching up toward their parents. It's such a natural, and universal, gesture, a child's reaching out and up to his/her loving provider and protector. I think that this is tranferred to our interactions with God, quite naturally, and quite appropriately. He is our Father!